Scalia to address Bachmann's group

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will offer a primer on the separation of powers as laid out in the U.S. Constitution at the first of a series of meetings for conservative members of Congress.

The Supreme Court and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) confirmed on Tuesday that the conservative justice was scheduled to speak at the inaugural Conservative Constitutional Seminar, in coordination with Bachmann's Tea Party Caucus.

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The lecture series, Bachmann said, will offer new members weekly classes on the Constitution and Declaration of Independence before they have been “co-opted into the Washington system.”

“Justice Scalia accepted an invitation from Rep. Bachmann to be a guest speaker at a constitutional seminar for members of Congress,” said the Supreme Court’s spokeswoman, Kathy Arberg. “He will discuss Separation of Powers.”

Arberg declined to offer more details on the event, instead referring inquiries to Bachmann’s office.

Bachmann’s press secretary, Sergio Gor, said the Scalia event would be in “the first few weeks of the new Congress” in January. The congresswoman, he said, is “very excited because there’s no better individual to address the issues and educate the members of the Congress than Justice Scalia.”

It’s unusual for members of the high court to speak to small groups of lawmakers, but not unprecedented.

The Congressional Caucus on the Judicial Branch, led by Reps. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), has about 45 members and meets occasionally with Supreme Court justices. Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke to the group earlier this year. Though Bachmann’s group is geared toward conservatives, Gor said Scalia’s lecture would be “a bipartisan event that we would love for Democrats and Republicans alike to attend.”

Gor said that Bachmann asked Scalia to speak during a private meeting with him, and he obliged.

Other speakers may include Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Andrew Napolitano, as well as evangelical minister David Barton, according to AOL News. But Gor would not confirm or deny the report.

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that Scalia will be speaking at the Conservative Constitution Seminar series being organized by Bachmann in connection with the Tea Party Caucus, not the Constitutional Conservative Caucus.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Zeeshan Aleem @ 12/15/2010 11:50 AM
By Zeeshan Aleem 12/15/10 @ 11:50 AM as per Dan Berman's request. Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that Scalia will be speaking at the Conservative Constitution Seminar series being organized by Bachmann in connection with the Tea Party Caucus, not the Constitutional Conservative Caucus.